PROMOTING RECOVERY IN CHRONIC APHASIA WITH AN INTERACTIVE TECHNOLOGY

Objective: To assess chronic aphasic patients' responses to resumption of therapy using an innovative, computer-based treatment system. Desi gn: Patients were assessed pretreatment and posttreatment using standa rdized assessment tools. Pretreatment and posttreatment performance sc ore means were computed and compared, with statistical significance of the differences established using a one-tailed, matched t test. Setti ng: The work was conducted at (1) a Veterans Affairs medical center pa rticipating in treatment research and (2) a regional aphasia center de livering therapy services for reimbursement. Patients: Chronic aphasic patients (n = 23) from 6 months to more than 15 years postonset were enrolled in the study. They included a wide range of types and severit ies of aphasia, and all had received traditional speech-language thera py services earlier. Interventions: All patients were treated in 1-hou r clinical sessions by speech-language pathologists using the designat ed computer-based treatment system. All but one of the patients had ac cess to the computer-based treatment system at home for practice betwe en clinical therapy sessions. Main Outcome Measures: The outcome measu res used were (1) the Porch Index of Communicative Ability (PICA), (2) the Boston Naming Test (BNT), (3) the Western Aphasia Battery (WAB), and (4) the Boston Diagnostic Aphasia Examination (BDAE). Results: The majority of patients improved significantly in multiple modalities as assessed by these instruments. Conclusions: Specific measures of lang uage function can be broadly, positively, and significantly influenced by computer based language therapy in chronic aphasia. (C) 1997 by th e American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine and the American Academ y of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation.